Statoil may build onshore terminal for Castberg oil - minister

Reuters Staff

2 Min Read

SANDEFJORD, Norway (Reuters) - Statoil (STL.OL) has begun work on a proposal to build an onshore terminal in northern Norway for handling oil from the Arctic offshore Johan Castberg oilfield and other yet-to-be-developed resources, the country’s energy minister and Statoil’s chief executive said on Tuesday.

A report on the proposal is expected in 2019, Minister of Petroleum and Energy Terje Soeviknes told Reuters on the sidelines of a conference.

“We are working together with several other licence holders and operators to see if there is a basis for building a terminal,” Statoil’s Chief Executive Eldar Saetre, also speaking to Reuters, said.

“We want to make it work, but we need more resources than Castberg for it to be realistic,” he added.

An onshore terminal could help to cut oil shipping costs as it would allow larger tankers to ship the oil.

The decision to build such a terminal would depend on whether it could also receive oil from other developments, including Lundin’s (LUPE.ST) Alta/Gohta and OMV’s (OMVV.VI) Wisting discoveries.

Lundin and OMV have yet to decide whether to develop those discoveries.